HOW WE LIVE

Variety is the common denominator for residential architecture. The wealth of conditions that we create and shape to our needs, desires and expectations is limitless; but when done it's considered home. When presented the opportunity to create home from scratch, we actively engage and struggle with our past, present and future; our traditions, technologies and our will. This is where the variety comes from.

But it is our present that creates the building: economic conditions, available materials, labor skills, and our awareness of environmental health and energy efficiency. The present is the tensile strand between the critical mass of the past and future, stressed to perfection. This strand contains informed and intuitive notions of history and imagination. Through this process, visible change in our preferences are recorded in our dwellings, which in turn reflects our cultural values.

For these reasons residential design is the most rewarding and significant endeavor for both architect and owner.

HOW WE WORK

Creating a workplace is the art of creating community. Communities of common intent produce magnificent works because of their group interests, goals and collaborations. These are the strengths of cities and towns, and are precisely the situations replicated in successful workplace environments.

Our contemporary workplace is challenged by the flexibility brought on by the wireless age. As our daily habits are influenced by the connectivity and convenience of the Internet, so are our business habits. Technology tends to shrink the distance between people, but a common gathering place is still essential for teamwork. Whether work is done through the strength of individual or group efforts, the gathering is critical for collaboration, problem solving, and the generation of new ideas. A good workplace needs to support the culture. A good workplace is like a world class city. A good workplace has private, semiprivate and public spaces interlinked by gathering spaces where impromptu interaction occurs.

OUR PAST IS PART OF OUR FUTURE

Nothing is more meaningful or fulfilling then to have saved something: the habitat, the alley, the junction, the place, the building. Our cultural experiences are embodied in such things, and this is why losing something is really an unrecoverable end. Yours, mine, and our lives and history are embodied in the tangible aspects of our natural and built environments. This is why preservation and conservation are so important and pursued by so many.

Giving new life to an old building is first a process of historic rediscovery, appreciation, and understanding. From this, the retention of the culturally significant situations, conditions and features of the building can be mixed with the new or altered use of the building, accomplishing purpose and place for the past in the present.

We all become richer through these efforts.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY & NET ZERO

Striving for better energy efficient design and construction, results in drastically lowering the expense of adding renewable energy sources to a project, which is the most essential first step in achieving a Net Zero (annual energy produced is equal to annual energy consumed) building. The State of California’s Long Term Strategic Energy Plan calls for all new residential construction to be Net Zero by 2020, and new non-residential buildings compliant by 2030.Supporting these changing design and construction practices, PWaec offers:

• • AIACC Liaison to the California Energy Commission
• • Energy Modeling and T-24 - CABEC Certified CEPE
• • HERSII Rating - CALCerts / CEC Certified
• • HERS Testing - CALCerts / CEC Certified
• • Multifamily Building Analyist - BPI Certified
• • Multifamily Green Point Rating (N & E) - BIG Certified
• • Residential Green Point, Rating (N & E) - BIG Certified